Earlier this year before my 15th birthday, I started planning a glory box – also known as a hope chest (in America I think).
My sister was moving out, and I was getting excited thinking about the shopping and planning they got to do, and my Mum noticed – she also noticed I kept stopping and looking at dinner sets, cups, etc.
So she suggested I start a glory box.

I decided to kinda do it as a homeschooling project – at school the year 10s did an ‘IPP’ I think, which was an individual personal project or something, so its kinda my equivalent.
This is an essay-ish I wrote on it… I have to remember to take the disgusting joke (I suggest you do not Google the italicized word in the brackets) out of it before I show the educational inspector person >>;

A ‘glory box’, also known as a ‘hope chest’ or ‘cedar chest’, was traditionally a collection of items to serve as a girls dowry for when she got married.

Marriages were commonly arranged in exchange for property, business or money from her husband’s family, and the family of the girl would provide all the items required to make a home – and these items would be collected from a young age, and stored in a chest (normally made of cedar to protect the contents within), for easy movability into her new home.

Glory boxes (never to be confused with glory holes..) are uncommon in today’s families, except very traditional, often religious and/or homeschooling, homes where the glory box is inherited from mother to daughter.

I’ve decided to start a modern glory box for when I move away from home in a few years, instead of for marriage which would be a long way off.

My glory box will include some basic kitchen and dining wares, linen, towels, home-made crafts, and anything I may want to keep to pass onto future children.

This way, when I start on my own for the first time, I don’t have to worry about it not feeling like a home, or scrounging up money for the basics and extras I need when I’m also trying to pay the bond.

And most of the electrical appliances would be gifts from family and friends, so I can just move into a ‘home’ straight away instead of just a ‘house’.

For now I’ll be storing my items in my wardrobe, but I will be getting a chest for my 15th birthday.

And if I keep my chest in good condition, I may be able to give it to a daughter I may have when I’m older – which will be a nice family tradition and way of bonding, especially if I have adopted children.

I have started a list of glory box items assisted by ideas from Mum and the internet.

My Mum and I will be hand making some things for my glory box, such as placemats, Christmas decorations, throws, wall-hangings, and more.

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Now, unfortunately I don’t have my chest yet.
My sister has an old chest with pretty Asian-ish carvings someone gave her, but the hinge is broken, and, well, its old.
My sisters friend also has the same or a similar carved chest with a matching coffee table of which I am envious.
I’ve also seen another one in my friends house.
Recently one of the same came into a local store with very nice unusual furniture I’ve been checking in for a while, but on the inside it seemed quite flimsy, like it wouldn’t hold all I would want it to, and the latch didn’t seem to shut properly – so I was disappointed, and didn’t get it 😦
So I’m really not sure about my mode of storage.

Today I’ve been looking at pictures of cute things I’d like to get, or get things that are similarly adorable.
I want to have a house filled with cute things, things that make me happy – living alone (or with a roommate) probably isn’t easy and I want to be surrounded with things that make me smile, not things that are boring and plain.
They’re still practical things, mind you, like measuring cups and tea sets and fry pans, they just are shaped like cats or have pandas on them :3
Most of these adorable items I love are from modcloth.com – which apart from having beautiful 50-style dresses, has home gifts and various books.
I’d love to order some of this stuff, but it can be quite expensive, and the shipping alone would be like over $20 because it’s international.

At the moment in my room I have my baby blanket, a massive knitted throw, and my teddy bear quilt (which I use currently), all made by my Mum.
I also kinda caved and bought some pop-up books for my future children >>; one of them is about warriors, and has an illustration where if you pull a tab someone gets disemboweled, and the other one is ‘Alyss Of Wonderland’, which as it turns out is a companion to a book series ‘The Looking Glass Wars’ which I will have to get now, lol.
I have the cutest half of my Dad’s old elephant collection (little figurines, not real ones) sitting on my desk going dusty, which I will hopefully preserve for my children.

Another great idea is a recipe scrapbook – collect a bunch of recipes I like, put them in a pretty scrapbook full of decorations, maybe some dried herbs and stuff 🙂
With an accompanying practical plastic folder of recipes, to actually follow as a cook – I wouldn’t want my pretty scrapbook getting dirty.

Other things I plan on getting are mugs, glasses, small dinner and cutlery sets, cushions, towels and bathmats, tea towels (which will actually be coloured cloth nappies, like my Mum uses – real ‘tea towels’ are too thin and get soaked!), a sewing box/basket, a toolbox (pink, ofcourse), maybe a cute little emergency kit (yes, they can be cute, too!), some sheets and linens.

And these aren’t things I will be actively hunting for, or spending lots of money on.
It’s stuff I’d buy because it’s on sale, or because I just see something that I think is really special.
Like, mugs are just going to be average, non-expensive things, but I’d like to have a very pretty tea set… although, I should probably start drinking tea O.o; haha.

I’d like to look around IKEA – I think they sell Alessi products there, and I wants me a magic bunny to hold me toothpicks!

I’ve been reading through an old forum on the australian vogue website about glory boxes.
Two things bothered me a little – for starters, all the arguments over feminism… I think feminism is about having a choice, the choice to be a successful woman, to work, and also to be proud of your domestic accomplishments, there is no reason to belittle people that want to make a home.
I would call myself a ‘feminist’, but because I believe we are all equal (although different), not because I think men are lesser, or that traditions or domestic things aren’t important.
Wearing aprons, baking cookies and popping out babies should be just as much a feminist right as having a career and being independent, because it’s about what I want to do, and I can do it all if I want to.
I claim ‘feminist’ as a word of equality and choices, not of man-hating and lesbianism (although the latter is a totally valid choice), just as I claim ‘glory box’ as a term of planning and independence, instead of archaic beliefs and sexism.

Oh, geeze, where did all that seriousness come from?
Anyway, my other problem was that people always warn you against buying things that are patterned, unusual, or likely to go out of fashion…
I know peoples tastes change, but just because something ‘goes out of fashion’, doesn’t mean you won’t like it any more!
Things come in and out of fashion all the time, but I like them all the time – I mean, it’s not like glory boxes are in fashion, but I still want one!
I’m not going to buy a bright red set of sheets, or black towels, but that doesn’t mean everything has to be white.
I mean, they say “buy white things now, and add coloured things later”… you still got the boring white things, now you just got extra coloured things O.o;
In my inspiring pictures, I have a set of plates and bowls that are bright purple with blue and green and brown paisley patterns – by the time I get sick of them, I’ll probably need to buy new ones, or they’ll be good for the childrens table or BBQs….. hopefully.
But anyway, I like them.
Go colour! Go paisley! Go kittens and pandas and birds! Go horrible decisions that you’ll regret later! BE FREE!!

Anyway, I think thats the end of this blog.
I’d like to add some pictures, but I did a big picture post yesterday about old kids pc games (old referring to the pc game part, not the kids part… that would be weird.)
Now I need a picture of old kid…

“HOWS IT GOIN!?”

(from Invader Zim, btw)

PLEASE READ, EDIT::: Okay, in this blog I mentioned the stereotype of feminism being man-hating and lesbianism.
To note that I didn’t have anything against lesbianism, I put ” and lesbianism (although the latter is a totally valid choice)” but thinking about it almost a month later I realised that is even more offensive than if hadn’t added any clarification at all.
Because lesbianism ISN’T A CHOICE, and I know that and always have – it’s just who you are 🙂